Apparel pushes free trade on Hill

A small army of clothing-industry executives has fanned out across Capitol Hill this week, pinning down 240 members of Congress for individual and group meetings to talk free trade.

They are the representatives of at least 50 apparel manufacturers and retailers who have taken up a new strategy in an attempt to get their way in the blockbuster Trans-Pacific Partnership, as U.S. negotiators are becoming more difficult to reach.

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The U.S. apparel industry has formed a single coalition and set about the goal of finding friends who will push negotiators to insist that rules be included in the trade deal that help them sell cheaper products. They’re asking for signatures on letters, urging members of Congress to call President Barack Obama’s top trade negotiators and more — and trying to gin up attention along the way, tweetingabouteachmeeting and even placing newspaper ads.

The timing of their lobbying push is critical. Top negotiators are meeting in Washington, D.C., this week and will gather again in Bali, Indonesia, in early October for a major round of talks. Their goal is to conclude the deal by the end of this year, which means key decisions on the most contentious remaining elements of the 12-country free trade agreement must come soon. As a result, opportunities for industries, free traders, fair traders, environmentalists and others to influence U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and his negotiators’ approach to the deal have all but expired.

So what next? Lobby Congress.

Lawmakers don’t play an official role in trade talks but still make key decisions, such as whether to give President Barack Obama the “fast-track” authority he needs to complete a deal without the threat of amendments. That’s where Congress finds its leverage — and rather than waiting until it’s time to cast those votes, industries with much on the line want members to start using it now by making clear that their votes are contingent on specific negotiating objectives.

“At this point, the ramp-up for industry is about making sure Congress insists that the negotiators come back with what is a good deal,” said Welles Orr, a former top U.S. trade official.

The fight within the clothing industry offers the best window into industries’ new efforts to lean on Congress.

The industry’s two sides — textiles (who make the fabric) and apparel (who turn it into clothing and then sell it) — are fighting over the final makeup of complicated provisions of the pact that address two key questions: which Asian clothing imports eventually would no longer face tariffs and when those tariffs would be eliminated.

Trade pacts typically require that all parts of the clothing production process — from the “ yarn forward” — take place within countries that are party to those pacts. As a result, at least part of the more expensive “upstream” part of the process, which involves producing yarn and turning it into fabric, has remained in the United States while low-wage production jobs have moved to countries like Honduras.

If those yarn forward rules are relaxed in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it could allow another huge textile-maker — China, for example — to sell its fabrics to companies in Vietnam and Malaysia for production into T-shirts, shoes and more. Though China isn’t participating in the trade talks, those countries are, and they could then sell apparel into the United States without tariffs. In other words: Textile businesses with about 500,000 employees in the United States would be met with an influx of Asian competition.

Negotiators are now haggling over the pact’s textile rules, as well as broader “market access” questions, such as what tariffs will be eliminated and when. With Froman pointing to the end of this year as his goal to finalize the deal, time is running short.

“This is a make-or-break stage,” said Augustine Tantillo, president of the National Council of Textile Organizations, one of many industry groups that has much at stake in the Pacific trade talks. The association’s members are underscoring that point in meetings with more than 200 lawmakers, Tantillo said.

“Once they understand the impact of various proposals, we believe they will actively engage with the executive branch,” Tantillo said of Congress. “This period is especially important for us.”